The government is poised to extend the incentives granted to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) to two- and three-wheel vehicles and to hybrid and plug-in four-wheel EVs as industry eyes to grow over 30 percent annually.
But according to Edmund Araga, president of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP), the country lags behind in Southeast Asia in terms of EV adoption because cost of ownership, despite the tax and duty-free treatment on BEVs, remains at least 15 percent more expensive.
According to Araga, countries like Thailand grant subsidies to EV purchases in the form of rebates, an incentive the group requested but not granted under the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act.
Patrick Aquino, director of the Energy Utilization Management Bureau, said to promote EVs, the plan is to cover two- and three-wheel vehicles with the tax and duty exemptions which are currently limited to four-wheel BEVs.
Data from the Land Transportation Office showed nearly 80 percent of vehicles on the road are motorcycles.
Of the 9,666 EVs registered last year, 8,100 are motorcycles.
But Aquino said part of the energy department’s position is also for the expansion of the incentives to include hybrid EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs.
“The suspension (of taxes and duties) is for a limited time window. It will not be permanent fixture. It’s (being done) to make sure that when we do start to develop our own domestic manufacturing capabilities, we will be able to smoothly shift to that,” Aquino said.
With tax and duty exemptions, prices of BEVs have drastically gone down, in the case of the Nissan Leaf by 30 percent to P2 million and the upcoming BYD vehicles which will be competitively priced.
EVAP is spearheading the 11th Philippine Vehicle Summit at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City on October 19 to 21 with the theme Plug-In and Accelerate.
